AAU Case Competition

Dansk oversættelse nedenunder

Post-pandemic relief, pre-graduation bonus

TEKST Vera Dvorakova

If you’ve ever attended one of AAU’s university fairs for new students or seen a group of students standing near a canteen with a big rollup poster and a giant cake, chances are that you heard about the AAU Case Competition. If you’re like me, you always just went for the cake and ignored the rest. And, while that is certainly a reasonable reaction, in case of the Case Competition, I think you might want to make an exception and get a bit of information on top of your cake.

The AAU Case Competition is a two-day event organised every year by a dedicated group of AAU students. The point is to get several students split into groups which will then work on one of the three different cases provided to the Competition by a company. All that in less than 24 hours. It’s important to say that it isn’t just your friendly neighbourhood butcher, but usually an established professional company asking for students’ help with their cases. This year, the honours go to Accenture – a professional services company involved in areas ranging from technology to consulting. Their cases deal with strategy & business, applied AI and robotics, that is, issues that their employees deal with daily.

Finding your strengths
Before all of you non-STEM students start panicking at the sight of words like robotics, let me put your minds at ease. Your specialty matters just as much as any other. The fact that you’re studying applied philosophy or psychology doesn’t disqualify you from this competition at all; on the contrary, you can be a great help to your group! You might not know anything about programming or AI, but you have an eye for design instead, or maybe you’re good at managing what the others are doing. If you’re still worried, the application process, which involves you writing a short motivational letter, might also very well help you with figuring this out. A good idea is to think about your strengths. Don’t know how to make a robot follow you around? Doesn’t matter, but you do know how to present the work of someone who can in a way that’s interesting. What I’m saying is that you can very well use this as training for your future job hunting. It’s nice that you have a degree, but have you thought about what it can help you achieve?

Also, did I mention that you don’t have to sign up alone and be grouped together with strangers? Groups are very much allowed to sign up together, so let yourself be encouraged to get some quality bonding time with your AAU buddies.

The why in participation
A valid motivation to participate in the AAU Case Competition is definitely the prizepool containing some 21.000 DKK. But there are other benefits to be gained by taking part in the Competition. Firstly, and that is a personal choice, it is a great opportunity to get back on your socialisation train. We have spent a year in lockdown, our universities have been closed for most of it. Our student social life is mostly dead if it ever existed. The people we were supposed to be building future professional relationships and making amazing university experiences with have been taken away from us and we might graduate before seeing any of them again. It’s difficult to meet new people at this point, also because we’re not accustomed to talking to anyone for long anymore.

But, by taking part in this competition, you will be forced to network, without having to do a lot of small talk. There’s always stuff to talk about when it comes to group work, so why not use it to get to know new people? You also get to chat with a few people from the company itself, which is a cool opportunity in and of itself.

Apart from that, as always, showing that you did something other than just your university work is a nice boost for your CV. And finally, trying to solve these cases might give you a feel for what working for a company like Accenture is. So, by solving the case, you might actually solve your existential crisis. And that’s always nice.

By the time you’re reading this, you might not be able to participate in the Case Competition, since it takes place from 17^th to 18^th March 2021. But if my words got you at least a bit excited, rest assured that there are plenty of other case competitions and hackathons, some of them even focused on stuff like business, law, web development or communication (https://medium.com/@augustsemrau/list-of-danish-case-competitions-and-hackathons-in-2020-2021-and-on-f2dafdc45a8d).

So go get your motivation together and join one of them!

Post-Pandemi Lettelse, Præ-Eksamen Bonus

TEKST Vera Dvorakova OVERSÆTTELSE Oliver Rothwell Pedersen

Hvis du har deltaget i en af AAUs universitets (fairs) for nye studerende eller set en gruppe af studerende stå i nærheden af en kantine men en stor oprullet plakat og en kæmpe kage, så er det muligt at du har hørt om AAU Case Competition. Hvis du er som mig, så går du bare efter kagen og ignorerer resten. Dog, mens det er en fuldstændig fornuftig reaktion, tror jeg du burde lave en undtagelse ved AAU Case Competition og få lidt information om hvorfor de deler kage ud.

AAU Case Competition er en begivenhed der strækker over to dage, og tager sted hvert år takket være en gruppe dedikerede AAU studerende. Formålet er at få fordelt en del studerende ind i nogle grupper som så arbejder på en af tre sager fremstillet af en virksomhed. Alt dette inden sker inden for 24 timer. Det er vigtigt at nævne at det ikke bare lige er nabolagets venlige slagter, men sædvanligt en professionel etableret virksomhed, der spørger elever til råds med deres sag. I år går æren til Accenture – en professionel tjenestevirksomhed, der er involveret i et bredt omfang fra teknologi til rådgivning. Deres sager beskæftiger sig med Strategy & Business, Applied AI and Robotics, altså, sager deres medarbejdere håndterer til dagligt.

At finde dine styrker
Før alle jer som ikke er STEM-studerende begynder at panikke ved ord som ’Robotics’, lad mig lige gøre det klart. Din specialitet gælder lige så meget som enhver anden. Det faktum at du studerer anvendt filosofi eller psykologi diskvalificerer dig overhovedet ikke fra denne konkurrence; tværtimod, du kan være af stor hjælp til din gruppe! Du ved måske intet om programmering eller AI, men du har et øje for design i stedet for, eller måske er du god til at administrere hvad andre laver. Hvis du stadig er bekymret, vil ansøgningsprocessen, hvilket involverer et kort motiveret brev, måske være til stor gavn for at finde ud af det. En god idé er at tænke på dine styrker. Aner du ikke hvordan man får en robot til at følge dig rundt? Det’ lige gyldigt, men du ved hvordan man præsenterer arbejdet af nogen som kan på en spændende måde. Hvad jeg vil sige er at du kan meget vel benytte dette som træning til din fremtidige karrieresøgning. Det er fint at du har et bachelor- eller kandidatgrad, men har du overvejet hvad den kan hjælpe med at opnå?

I øvrigt, har jeg nævnt at du ikke behøver at stille op alene og kan være i gruppe med fremmede? Grupper må hjertens gerne stille op sammen, så lad dig opmuntret til at få noget kvalitetstid med dine venner fra AAU.

Hvorfor skal man tilmelde sig
En velbegrundet motivering til at deltage i AAU Case Competition er i hvert fald præmiepuljen på nogle 21.000 DKK. Der er desuden andre fordele at vinde ved at deltage i konkurrencen. Først og fremmest er det en alle tiders mulighed at socialisere sig igen samt at være et personligt valg. Vi har tilbragt et år under lockdown og vores universiteter har forholdt sig lukket under det meste af det. Vores sociale liv som studerende er for det meste dødt, hvis det nogensinde eksisterede. Dem vi burde have bygget en fremtidig professionelt forhold til og have fede universitetsoplevelser med er blevet taget væk fra os og vi består måske inden vi får dem at se igen. Det er svært at møde nye mennesker i denne tid, også fordi vi ikke er vant til at holde lange samtaler længere.

Men ved at deltage i konkurrencen vil du blive tvunget til at udvide dit netværk uden alt for meget småsnak. Der er altid noget at tale om når det kommer til gruppearbejde, så hvorfor ikke lære nye folk at kende? Du får også mulighed for at snakke med folk fra virksomheden selv, hvilket er en sej mulighed i og af sig selv.

Derudover, som altid, er det godt at vise, at du har gjort noget udover universitetsarbejde på dit CV. I sidste ende vil det at løse virksomhedernes sager give dig en fornemmelse af hvordan det er at arbejde for en virksomhed som Accenture. Så, ved at løse sager for virksomheder løser du måske din eksistentielle krise. Det’ altid rart.

Når du er færdig med at læse dette har du måske ikke mulighed for at deltage i konkurrencen, da den tager sted mellem d. 17. og 18. marts 2021. Men hvis mine ord fik dig bare lidt begejstret for det hele, så kan du hvile dig ved at der er en masse andre case competitions og hackathons – nogle af dem er endda baseret på ting som forretning, jura, web-udvikling eller kommunikation (https://medium.com/@augustsemrau/list-of-danish-case-competitions-and-hackathons-in-2020-2021-and-on-f2dafdc45a8d).

Så tag til en af dem med fuld motivation!